


Split Ends

by Cakeandpocky



Category: The Mortal Instruments
Genre: M/M, Multi, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-18
Updated: 2014-10-14
Packaged: 2018-02-05 05:00:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1806190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cakeandpocky/pseuds/Cakeandpocky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When your parents aren't home, and you have a great a idea, Gabriel Bane takes the opportunity to get in trouble.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Mischievous Magic

**Author's Note:**

> This was a cute idea that came to my head. One shot, two shot. Maybe a full length story.

Gabriel loved Doctor Who. Time travel seemed outside his own magical abilities- so he had to find a way to satisfy his love of science fiction without messing up and ripping a hole in the universe.

His Pàpa, Magnus Bane, was great at time travel. A snap of his fingers and he was in 1983, then back. The problem was the fact that he never used it. He'd shown it to Gabriel ONCE- when his other Dad, Alec, was off on some serious mission and they both needed a distraction. (Alec had come home a little bloody, but otherwise alright.)

Gabriel swished his hand around, green and blue sparks skidding around his fingertips, and, well, sparking. They kept shorting out, or setting things on fire that he hadn't meant to touch with his magic.

'Your young!' Magnus would say, laughing at Gabriel's pout. 'You have the same amount of control I had- nada.'

Speaking of his Pápa, neither of his parents were home in the large Brooklyn apartment. Gabriel smirked, and idea popping into his head. 

'What if I try to time travel?' This sounded brilliant to the young warlock- time travel all by himself? Maybe he could prove that he had control! 

Standing up, he quietly (his parents aren't home, why should he be so careful?) opened his father's study. Several pictures of both his parents litter the walls- their wedding day, them in Paris when Alec was 18. The Chairman napped on the old couch that looked stained and about as old as he was. 

The book he was looking for was orange, covered in gold sparkles. The spell he needed was short and sweet- he'd be gone and back in time to avoid his parents knowing he'd gone somewhere.


	2. Oh Fuck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> He he yay thanks for the kudos!

Sparks flew around Gabriel's entire body this time- swirling with turmoil and beauty. Imaging 1832 (because why not?), Gabriel whispered the spell.

Just as the front door opened, he disappeared, but to hell if he was headed to 1832.

Oh, no. 2008, here he came, not intentionally, of course.

 

\---------------------Tardis-----------

 

When he landed at his own doorstep, smacking his head into the door, the only thoughts he had were of complete disappointment. 

"What the actual hell?" He groaned, letting his head hang in defeat. He heard something moving inside the apartment, and Alec peered out the rusty blue door- hadn't it been purple?- and sighed. 

"Magnus, someone's bleeding outside our door!" He bent down and offered his hand to Gabriel. "You alright there, kiddo?" 

"You don't recognize me?" He coughed as he accepted the extended hand. A shot of pain went through his side and palms, which were scraped and burned.

"Alec, sweetheart, we don't adopt strays," Magnus said as he casually leaned against the door, "although he certainly is attractive."

"Please don't flirt with me. That's weird, uh, Magnus?" The glittery warlock stepped forward, eyes menacing.

"How does this young warlock know my name?"

"I did shout for you." Alec drawled, letting Gabriel lean on him. "And you responded with my name." The relaxed look on his face was exotic- his version of Alec was that of a parent. Stressed as fuck.

"Where do you come from, kid?" Magnus had brushed off the blow to his demeanor and was now smirking. 

"Well, here. Just not this time period." He glanced down at his Nirvana t-shirt and jeans- an outfit he had stolen from Alec last minute. Not exactly futuristic or believable.

It took him a minute to realize the teenaged-version of his Dad wore the same thing, just newer. Shit.

"You like Nirvana?" Alec beamed, sweeping his pin-straight hair out of his face. "Jeez, you'd better, or else I'm taking that t-shirt."

"It's actually my Dad's." Gabriel smiled, tugging at it with the hand that wasn't wrapped around Alec's waist supporting him. "He got it from, well, my other dad. On one of their crazy shopping trips that my Pápa decided they needed to go on." 

"Hey," Magnus chuckled, "same thing. Except, we don't have kids."

'Yet.' Gabriel thought, his eyes rolling. 

"Come on, kiddo. Let's get you inside."

 

\---------tardis----

 

The minute Magnus walked in the door, something seemed wrong. Sulfuric fumes filled the air, a cloud of dust and fog sweeping out the recently closed apartment. Alec gaped, and drew his bow stepping into the apartment with a crunch.

Bone.

They were roughly human shaped. A femur, bloody and snapped in half from Alec's military boots, lay in front of the door. The gears of a parent surpassed his shadowhunter instincts- he dropped his bow and ran into Gabriel's bedroom.

"Gabe!" Nothing. "Gabriel!" Magnus soon started moving, thawed and sluggish.

"Gabriel, baby, where are you?" They both called until their throats were sore, their voices horse, but no one called back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos are love!


	3. Inter-time Communication

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was really short. Sorry...

"So," Magnus purred as he handed Gabriel a mug, "What's your name, cutie?" Gabe coughed on a sip of the hot liquid- tea, he noted, the same kind he drank during his own time, which he dearly missed.

"Gabriel Ba-" He cut himself off as both of his parents turned to look at him. "Bannister. Gabriel Bannister."

"What idiot gave you that last name?" Alec twirled the spoon in his own mug, a dark eyebrow quirked above his eye in question. 

"My parents, obviously."

"What are their names?" Magnus tried to lighten the heavy atmosphere, waving a blue sparked hand around.

"I'd rather not tell you." He sighed, drinking deeply from his cup. "But I miss them. "

"That's sweet." Alec's eyes were glossy. "They must love you just as much."

"They probably think I'm dead. I must of ignited Pápa's study on fire. The Chairman might be fried-" Gabriel knew the consequences of messing up time, but this was compromising. The cat heard his name and came running. Cats knew things- his cat was no exception. 

"How do you know my cat's name?" Magnus's hand caught on fire, cat eyes dilated. 

Gabriel did the opposite of what Magnus expected- he didn't run, or put up defenses.

No, the poor teenaged warlock sniffled.

"I wanna go home." The desperation in his voice was thick and muddy, hard to understand. "You have dimensional calling, right?" Magnus nodded and held out his charmed phone.

"Hope you know your Dad's number, kid."

\-------Tardis---------

 

The first time Magnus's cell phone rang, he didn't answer it. Whoever it was could wait- he was investigating the bones in the silent city, and it was rude to talk on a phone while the silent brothers determined if the bones you found were your kid's or not.

And yet, the ringing persisted. 

So he answered, possibly angrier than he should had. Fuck it; his baby was missing.

"What?" He growled, a deep one that surprised a half asleep Alec beside him.

"Pápa!" Gabriel's voice sounded almost like bells. Very distant, but all the same heavenly. 

"Gabe? Gabe, baby, can you hear me?" Magnus felt like crying- no, he was crying.

"Yah! I'm using....well, look at the number." Magnus glanced at the ID- his old number from roughly 12 years ago.

"How am I calling myself, Gabriel?"

"I fucked up. I used Time travel, and I shouldn't have, but I did, and I met you from when you met Dad and you seem really defensive and flirty and a lot more glittery and I wanna come home!" He rambled, sniffling.

"Gosh, Gabriel. Put me on the phone."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos are love!


	4. A little Crazy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This goes out to ThePinballWizard, and all other kudos leavers. Also, a shoutout to someone named Diane who left the sweetest comment that kept me up typing this!

Surprisingly, talking to himself was not the craziest thing Magnus Bane had ever done. Mostly, of course, due to the fact that he was an extremely intelligent person, and could easily pick up on the situation with only minor details.

Thank god he wasn't talking to a younger Alec.

While he loved him dearly, he was oblivious and rather slow on the uptake. Not exactly the best way to get your child back from another time period.

"I can't believe," the younger version of himself sighed nonchalantly, "that your, my, no, our kid could do this so easily." Magnus cursed himself for being so relaxed at the time, with no thoughts to being a full time parent except for the fact that his future son just fell, quite literally, into his doorway.

Their doorway. Whatever.

"Gabe doesn't quite understand the boundaries of magic." He could hear a shout of protest silenced by the shadowhunter on the other side of the phone. "This isn't something I would have attempted alone. Where was he trying to go?"

"He said somewhere in the 1800's- maybe he wanted to meet Tessa Gray or William Herondale." Both bedazzled warlocks shuddered, reaching over to pat their respective Alec on the head. Some things don't change.

"I- We told him one story. One. About Alec's ancestors. So he can't be that interested." He knew how much a story could spark his 14 year old son's interest, but it was better not to take the blame for Gabriel's defiance.

Right?

"By the way, before we get started on sending him home, is Alec still hot in his late twenties?" Both shadowhunters perked up at the sound of their name.

"No gray hairs." Alec yawned, leaning on his husband. "Just long, sleepless nights. Kids and shadow-hunting don't mix very well. I see why Mom and Robert didn't want to deal with four kids, let alone one." The phone was taken out of the younger Magnus's hand.

"Is he not Dad to you anymore?" He could hear himself chuckle sadly, almost see him shaking his head.

"He tries to set you up with a girl that basically rapes you with her eyeballs. The minute he learned I was getting married, he 'informed' me that he wouldn't be attending the sin-ceremony."

"How old are we when we get engaged?" The question sounded like it was full of excitement.

"That's a surprise." Gabriel coughed into his hand, a 'move along' gesture.

"Can we, I don't know, send me home?"

"Of course!" Magnus shouted, almost busting Gabriel's ear drum. "Lets do this, me!"

"Dear lord, Magnus, what did I get myself into?"


	5. William Tell Overturned part one

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a tough time writing around my birthday. Co-authored and edited by my lovely friend Ilsa. The chapter title is because of my stupid ideas and probably won't make sense tomorrow.

"Alec, where's my core processor manual?"

"Why the hell do you need instructions to the part of your Ipad that does...stuff?" Magnus scowled at his boyfriend, looking at Gabriel.

"Please tell me that this improves. I don't think I can live like this."

"Live like what?" Alec looked up from his trusty Codex-which, admittedly, wasn't helping much-and twisted his features into a classic 'I'm so done with this' shadowhunter look. "I don't need to be any more educated in this than you need to be in archery. So shut up."

"Uh, Magnus?" Gabriel started to stand as something appeared in his line of vision.

"Shush, shortie. I'm trying to figure out how to get you back to your parents- no, us- and be able to mature enough to have kids."

"But-"

"Mag, the wall is glowing." Alec dropped his book with a loud thud and scrambled to grab a seraph blade from his discarded weapons belt. Once armed, he took a step forward, just as a familiar glittery head poked out of the portal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I KNOW ITS SHORT ITS PART ONE OK


	6. Part Two- Your child

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not my kid, Magnus.

Alec didn't expect it to work the first time they tried time travel, but he supposed determination played a key role. 

Gabriel ran forward and tackled his dad, barely able to comprehend how his absolutely brilliant parents managed to find them.

Magnus stepped through the portal and smiled at his younger counterpart.

"Hello, me."

"Hola, also me." 

The younger Alec scowled at the both of them and stroked the Chairman, contemplative. What exactly was going on here? And why did his counterpart smell like demon gore? 

The older Alec sniffed a bit and turned to him. 

"Thank you, for taking care of him." They both broke out into grins- the younger, because he knew Magnus and him had hope, and the older because he could see how happy he gets to be.

They both have things to look forward to.

Gabriel rubbed his eyes and smiled. 

'I've gotten out of trouble! Yes!' He thought.

You forgot to knock on wood, Gabe.

28 year old Alec whipped around from his position and glared at his son. 

"What on Earth," He said through clenched teeth, "were you thinking?!" 

"I wanted to be like Pápa!"

"So this is your father's fault? Magnus!"

"Not my fault! He's your kid!"

"The minute he does something bad he's mine? Uh uh, Mister. Talk to your child."

"Fine. If you insist."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried. Sorry.


End file.
